Treffen!

I've been spending a lot of time with the girls from the Goethe Institute the past few weeks, and it's been so much fun. Natalia and I have been going swimming three times a week since we found a pool where we can actually lap around without crushing little grandmas and grandpas on our way. We basically hijack the center lane (real lane markers don't exist in these German pools) and so far we've been able to keep other people from crossing into our stretch of water. 

Yesterday Natalia invited us girls over for lunch at her house in Beul, a suburb of Bonn, but only a 20 minute walk from the City Center. We made a huge salad and two small pizzas, and had a wonderful afternoon eating and chatting. A true girly afternoon.

On Monday earlier this week Stefania had all of us and our partners over for an Italian dinner at her home in Bad Godesberg. We had a delicious appetizer of Sushi that Yoko hand-made and brought for our tasting, and then we went right into the main course... a vegetarian lasagna that Christian, Stefania's boyfriend, had made that morning. The lasagna was accompanied by authentic Italian meatballs, courtesy of Stefania, and a delicious Argentine Malbec that Natalia and Andreas had picked up on their way over. We finished up the meal with a cheese cake Daniel and I bought at the outdoor market near our house. 

  

We've only got a week left with all four of us in Bonn. Natalia will be going to Argentina for a month long visit with her family, Stefania will be returning to Florence, and I will be heading home to Minneapolis, back to real life, a job, the dogs, and snow. Yoko stays here in Bonn, though who knows, she and her husband may end up back in Japan sooner than expected. So we're all trying to make the most of our last week here together.